Perceptions оf “Vital Space” in the Worldview of Union and Progress Committee and the Armenian Genocide

Friedrich Ratzel (1844-1904), a prominent thinker of political geography, put forward an idea of vital space (Lebensraum) by an analogy between a plant and a state. Developing this idea in the 1890s Ratzel defi ned the vital space as a precondition for a given state to provide proper living conditions for its population, without which the existence, development and further expansion of the state would be impossible. Although Ratzel’s theory was predominantly attributed to the Nazi regime and German quest for land in the East, the theory of Lebensraum could be localized on the Ottoman Empire and the policy of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). Juxtaposing the teachings of Ratzel with the ideological propaganda of the CUP as a ruling party from 1908-1918 and the practical steps taken towards the Turkifi cation of the country, the article argues that the Committee’s political vision was more than just a creation of a Turkish nation-state. The formation and development of the perception of the Asia Minor peninsula and the western part of the Armenian Highlands as a Turkish vital space and the practical steps taken towards the maintenance of this land led to the deliberate destruction of the native Christian populations. The article will present the theoretical framework of Lebensraum, the development of the idea of “homeland” among the Turkish intellectual elite, the geopolitical and historical context in which “Anatolia” was chosen as a Turkish vital space. Interwoven with Herbert Spencer’s doctrine of social Darwinism, and its main concepts “struggle for survival” and the “survival of the fi ttest,” Ratzel’s Lebensraum became more comprehensible to political circles, including high-ranking offi cials of the Committee of Union and Progress. The paper discusses the preconditions for the selection of an area, methods of its conquest and maintenance. While the physical cleansing of the vital space from the “opponent” or “alien” population is one of the methods for maintenance of Lebensraum. Taking the Armenian Genocide as a clear example of this method, the article discusses only the economic and cultural inner expansions. The article concludes that the Armenian Genocide was a set of state-planned deliberate measures by the Ottoman government aimed at the physical destruction and full eradication of the Armenians from the Turkish living space and the social and cultural system of the country.